What is the history of a cucumber?

Answer 1

A cucumber is the fruit of a vine which grows from the ground upwards, using any available support; cultivated plants are grown on trellises.

The plant is from Asia, originating in India, where it has been cultivated for at least three millennia; it's believed the Romans introduced it to Europe.

The name 'cucumber' comes to us from Latin 'cucumis', the original meaning of which isn't known. The Latin word came into the French language and from there entered the English language in the fourteenth century. Previously the fruit was known as 'earth-apple' in Old English, and following the introduction of the French word was known in England as 'cowcumber' in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, possibly because it was considered fit only for cattle fodder, much as were other New World fruits considered by the English to be watery and almost-tasteless, such as zucchini, squash (melons) and choko (chayote).

The cucumber fruit is used for pickling, eating raw, and in many cooked dishes, as well as for cosmetic uses. It is still used to cool the skin and eyes, and a scientific study in the 1970s confirmed the long-held folk belief in its cooling properties: it was discovered a cucumber in the field could, on a warm day, be up to 20 F (6.7 C) cooler than the ambient temperature.

Naturally curved, farmers throughout the centuries have tried various ways to have the fruit grow straighter, eventually breeding for as straight varieties as possible. In 1988 the EEC introduced legislation requiring culinary-quality cucumbers to be nearly straight, giving measurements stating the degree of curvature allowed.

The Chinese are said to have suspended stones from the ends of cucumbers as they grew on their trellises in order to have them grow straighter.